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Glossary of Meeting Terms

The Glossary of Meeting Terms describes terminology and acronyms related to meetings and all the activities we do in those meetings. We've gathered this information from far and wide, so enjoy! And hey — if you have corrections or additions, please don't hesitate to contact us!

A

An Action Review Meeting is used by teams to learn from experience and use what they've learned to improve future work.

You can find an introduction to Action Review Meetings in Chapter 20 of our book, Where the Action Is.
You may also want to visit the Learn More link, below, for resources to help you plan, run, and troubleshoot the specific meetings your team needs.

An After-Action Review lays out a structured de-briefing process for analyzing an event. Participants discuss what happened, why it happened, and what can be done better in the future. After-Action Reviews were originally popularized by the military as a technique used to quickly learn from encounters and adapt to emerging situations. After-Action Reviews are now common in both the public and private sector as a way for teams to learn from the results of recently completed projects and...

Agile is a time boxed, iterative approach to work designed to deliver results incrementally from the start of the project, instead of trying to deliver everything all at once at the end. The agile methodology relies on a series of related meetings—called "ceremonies"—to keep the work coordinated and encourage continuous improvement.

AGM stands for Annual General Meeting: A meeting of the general membership of an organization. AGMs are held by membership associations and large companies with shareholders according to the rules spelled out in the organization's bylaws or charter.

B

A Board Meeting is a formal meeting of the board of directors of an organization and any invited guests, held at definite intervals and as needed to review performance, consider policy issues, address major problems and perform the legal business of the board. Presided over by a chairperson of the organization, the quorum, rules, and responsibilities for board meetings will be documented in the organization's operating agreements and may need to meet government requirements. The finalized...

A Broadcast Meeting is used by teams when they need to share information with a large group, either internally or externally.

You can find an introduction to Broadcast Meetings in Chapter 34 of our book, Where the Action Is.
You may also want to visit the Learn More link, below, for resources to help you plan, run, and troubleshoot the specific meetings your team needs.

Examples
Marketing Webinar
Press Conference...

C

A committee consists of a named subgroup of people within an organization who come together to fill a predetermined function. A committee's work is described in its charter and is often conducted in a series of meetings. A committee may operate as a governing body, overseeing an organizational function for a prolonged period of time, or as a project team that gets disbanded once the original goal is accomplished. Depending on their function, committee meetings may work like team meetings,...

A Community of Practice Meeting is used by people with a shared interest in a topic for networking, learning, and mutual support.

You can find an introduction to Team Cadence Meetings in Chapter 32 of our book, Where the Action Is.
You may also want to visit the Learn More link, below, for resources to help you plan, run, and troubleshoot the specific meetings your team needs.

Examples
Monthly Safety Committee Meeting...

D

A Decision Making Meeting is used by teams when they need to formally agree on a significant decision and secure commitment to act on that decision.

You can find an introduction to Decision Making Meetings in Chapter 26 of our book, Where the Action Is.
You may also want to visit the Learn More link, below, for resources to help you plan, run, and troubleshoot the specific meetings your team needs.

A discovery meeting is a form of investigative meeting used by consultants, designers, and project teams to learn more about a project's requirements. During a discovery meeting, one or more people interview the project stakeholders about project goals, background, available resources, constraints and any other factors that may impact the project's success.

Discovery meetings provide information used to draft a discovery report and to help the project team decide on next steps.

E

An executive session is a private meeting within an otherwise open meeting, such as an organizational board meeting. Boards may hold an executive session involving only board members to discuss sensitive or private information. The minutes for an executive session are taken separately, if at all, and the discussion is considered confidential. In public organizations, the business that can be legally discussed in an executive session may be subject to open meeting laws governing public access...

G

A Governance Cadence Meeting is used to provide legal and strategic oversight for an organization or contractual relationship.

You can find an introduction to Governance Cadence Meetings in Chapter 21 of our book, Where the Action Is.
You may also want to visit the Learn More link, below, for resources to help you plan, run, and troubleshoot the specific meetings your team needs.

Examples
Board Meetings
Quarterly...

I

An Idea Generation Meeting is used when a group needs to quickly create a lot of new ideas.

You can find an introduction to Idea Generation Meetings in Chapter 23 of our book, Where the Action Is.
You may also want to visit the Learn More link, below, for resources to help you plan, run, and troubleshoot the specific meetings your team needs.

An Introduction Meeting is used to determine whether the people involved wish to create a relationship and work together again in the future.

You can find an introduction to Introduction Meetings in Chapter 30 of our book, Where the Action Is.
You may also want to visit the Learn More link, below, for resources to help you plan, run, and troubleshoot the specific meetings your team needs.

An Issue Resolution Meeting is used when two parties both recognize there is a problem to solve, but they have different beliefs about how the problem should be solved.

You can find an introduction to Team Cadence Meetings in Chapter 31 of our book, Where the Action Is.
You may also want to visit the Learn More link, below, for resources to help you plan, run, and troubleshoot the specific meetings your team needs.

Examples
Support...

K

A kickoff meeting, originating from football, is generally the first meeting with the project team and their client. This meeting comes after the basic project details have been defined, but before the main project work begins and is designed to create alignment between everyone involved with the project. .

Kickoff meetings are not planning meetings, although it is common to review and revise project plans during a kickoff. A kickoff may last anywhere from a few hours to a few days,...

L

Lean practices focus on those activities that continuously improve all functions and processes, and involve all employees in the effort to increase the efficiency with which the organization delivers value to customers. Lean practices originated in Japan at Toyota then gained widespread adoption in the manufacturing industry. Today, Lean methodologies are being adapted to improve operations in many other industries as well.

Lean practitioners use a series of specialized meetings to...

O

A One-on-One Meeting is used to offer support, develop relationships, and ensure mutual accountability between two people.

You can find an introduction to One-on-One Meetings in Chapter 19 of our book, Where the Action Is.
You may also want to visit the Learn More link, below, for resources to help you plan, run, and troubleshoot the specific meetings your team needs.

Examples
The Manager/Employee One-on-One...

P

A Planning Meeting is used to create a plan and secure commitment to taking the first steps.

You can find an introduction to Planning Meetings in Chapter 24 of our book, Where the Action Is.
You may also want to visit the Learn More link, below, for resources to help you plan, run, and troubleshoot the specific meetings your team needs.

A Post Mortem, in the context of meetings, is a process usually conducted at the conclusion of a project to determine which parts of the project were successful or unsuccessful. Project post-mortems are intended to inform process improvements, mitigate future risks, and promote iterative best practices.

A Pre-Mortem is a meeting before a project starts in which a team imagines what the project would look like if it succeeded and if it failed. The team then works backward to create a plan to help prevent potential obstacles and increase the chances of success. This technique is recommended by behavioral psychologists and neuroscientists as an especially effective way of combatting cognitive bias and reducing project risk.

Teams use Problem Solving Meetings to analyze a situation and its causes, assess what direction to take, then create an action plan to resolve the problem.

You can find an introduction to Problem Solving Meetings in Chapter 25 of our book, Where the Action Is.
You may also want to visit the Learn More link, below, for resources to help you plan, run, and troubleshoot the specific meetings your team needs.

A Progress Check Meeting is used to confirm progress on a project or initiative and to maintain project momentum.

You can find an introduction to Progress Check Meetings in Chapter 18 of our book, Where the Action Is.
You may also want to visit the Learn More link, below, for resources to help you plan, run, and troubleshoot the specific meetings your team needs.

Examples
The Project Status Meeting
The Client...

R

A retrospective is a meeting that's held at the end of an iteration in Agile software development or at the completion of a project. During the retrospective, the team reflects on what happened in the iteration and identifies actions for improvement going forward.

S

A Sensemaking Meeting is used to find answers to questions and improve shared group understanding of a topic or situation.

You can find an introduction to Team Cadence Meetings in Chapter 29 of our book, Where the Action Is.
You may also want to visit the Learn More link, below, for resources to help you plan, run, and troubleshoot the specific meetings your team needs.

Strategic planning is a systematic process of envisioning a desired future and translating this vision into broadly defined goals or objectives and a sequence of steps to achieve them. In contrast to long-term planning (which begins with the current status and lays down a path to meet estimated future needs), strategic planning begins with the desired-end and works backward to the current status.

T

Team Cadence Meetings are used to keep teams aligned towards a common goal, to keep everyone informed, and to ensure work momentum.

You can find an introduction to Team Cadence Meetings in Chapter 17 of our book, Where the Action Is.
You may also want to visit the Learn More link, below, for resources to help you plan, run, and troubleshoot the specific meetings your team needs.

Examples
The Weekly Team Meeting
The Daily Huddle
The Shift-Change Meeting
A Regular Committee...

A Training Meeting is used to transfer knowledge from one person or group to another.

You can find an introduction to Team Cadence Meetings in Chapter 33 of our book, Where the Action Is.
You may also want to visit the Learn More link, below, for resources to help you plan, run, and troubleshoot the specific meetings your team needs.

Examples
Client Training on a New Product
New Employee Onboarding...

W

A walking meeting is exactly what it sounds like; a meeting conducted while walking. Proponents of walking meetings say walking meetings lead to more natural conversations and enhanced creativity. They cite research that shows the benefits of exercise on the brain to stimulate creativity and problem-solving abilities.

While many advocates tout walking meetings as new way of meeting, we believe golfers may say otherwise.

A webinar is a seminar, training session, or other broadcast conducted over the Internet. Webinars feature one or more central speakers presenting information to a large group of registered attendees. While participants may have an opportunity to ask questions or answer short polls, webinars are not considered a collaborative meeting.

A workshop is a long interactive meeting or educational session designed to create a specialized result. Workshops are longer than the typical business meeting and require more preparation beforehand. Workshops typically involve a central trainer or facilitator who works with a set of sponsors to design the sequence of presentations, plan collaborative activities, and ensure the workshop will lead to the desired result. Workshops emphasize hands-on interaction. Strategic planning often...

Workshops are custom-designed meetings, usually over two hours, than can be used to achieve a myriad of goals.

You can find an introduction to Workshops in Chapter 27 of our book, Where the Action Is.
You may also want to visit the Learn More link, below, for resources to help you plan, run, and troubleshoot the specific meetings your team needs.